The Dynastic Republic of Gabon

Abstract

The emergence of quasi-hereditary "dynastic republics" is a new regional trend, raising concerns about the decline in democracy, government accountability, nepotism, and grand corruption. Second generation dynasts have ruled in Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Togo and Gabon and have been treated as exceptional, as aberrations, or theorized under other conceptual tools. In this article, we examine "dynastic style" in this case study of Gabon which employs qualitative life story and family history methodology to show how, with the help of the former colonial power, a kin group has established itself as a dynastic regime in a modern republic, corruptly achieving what is otherwise anachronistic primogeniture.